In the microelectronic industry, a continuously debated problem is that of burn-in and testing of bare; i.e., naked integrated circuit chips. As is well known, chips are mostly packaged by wire or tape bonding and encapsulated in a ceramic or plastic package.
Since the cost of packaging is higher in many cases than the cost of the chip, it makes more economic sense to burn-in naked chips so that those that are defective can be discarded and only the surviving good chips packaged. Also, the good chips can be sorted according to the test results prior to packaging.
The desire to burn-in naked chips led to the development of tape automated bonding (TAB) by General Electric in 1964. However the bonding tape as well as the TAB burn-in sockets have proven to be quite expensive. Thus there continues to be an acute need for a technological solution to the problem of burning-in and testing naked chips. Complicating the problem is the fact that contact pads positioned mostly on the perimeter of the chip are typically spaced as close as 0.004 inches (0.01016 cm) center to center, although the majority are spaced 0.006 inches (0.01524 cm) center to center. There is no technology in the field at this time to address such densities in sockets or connectors.
Accordingly, it is now proposed to provide a miniature socket having discrete contact elements for the burning-in of naked chips.